Great importance is now attached to performance management as companies incorporate it into their effective management strategies. However, many people find this process complicated, mainly because of the many choices it offers – for the organization, for a specific department/branch, for a product or service, and for employees, among others.

To minimize this confusion, the following points give you an overview of performance management and the activities involved in this process.

What is performance management?

Performance management is a process that enables managers and employees (supervised persons) to set common goals in relation to the overall goals of the organization by looking at employee performance.

Why is that important?

Performance management creates a framework for employees and their performance managers to evaluate and agree on specific issues and goals that fit into the overall structure of the organization. This allows both parties to have clear goals that will help them in their work and professional growth.

Who Does Performance Management?

Performance management is performed by those who oversee the performance of others – job/team leaders, supervisors, managers, directors or department heads.

Which processes are involved?

The following are the stages of the performance management process:

1. Planning

This phase of the performance management process includes creating job descriptions and identifying key employee roles, and establishing a departmental or company-wide strategic plan.

job description

Job descriptions are used to advertise vacant positions, which usually specify the following:

– Specific roles, duties and responsibilities of the position
– The time required to act on each function
– Required qualifications (skills, knowledge and skills) to perform the activity
– The physical and mental demands of the job
– Salary range for the position
– To whom the position reports

The job descriptions must be disclosed to the employee immediately upon hiring. Note, however, that job descriptions are worded, making it difficult to measure employee performance. They are distinct from competencies, which list the skills needed to perform those tasks and are described in measurable terms.

The strategic plan

In fact, a strategic plan tells you three things:

– How will the company develop in the coming years?
– How the company will get there.
– How does the company find out if it already exists or not.

The strategic plan includes the following elements:

Mission statement – the main reason your department (or company) exists.

Goals – linked to the mission statement, they define the outcomes that advance the mission statement.

Strategic Initiative – defines specific steps that must be taken to achieve each goal. It is a dynamic process that is usually studied over a period of, for example, a year or two.

2. Develop

This phase of the performance management process involves the development of performance standards, which provide a scale describing how specific tasks must be performed in order to meet (or exceed) expectations. They are explained to newly hired employees and then used to evaluate their work performance.

Performance standards are generally set using employees who actually perform the tasks or functions. This approach has a number of advantages:

– The standards correspond to professional requirements
– Standards apply to actual working conditions
– Standards are easily understood by employees (and also by performance managers).
– Standards are recognized (and accepted) by employees and performance managers.

Performance standards typically come in the form of ratings (1 through 5, A through E) that are used by performance managers to assess actual employee performance levels.

3. Surveillance

This phase of the performance management process involves monitoring employee performance and providing feedback on that performance.

As a basis for feedback, observations must be verifiable: they must include facts, events, behaviors, actions, statements, and results that are tangible and relevant to the work. This type of feedback is called behavioral feedback and it helps employees improve and/or maintain good performance by pinpointing areas where employees need improvement without judging their character or motives.

4. Rating

This phase involves conducting a performance assessment. This is an important aspect of the performance management process as it is important for performance managers to arrive at an unbiased evaluation.

The performance appraisal form has the following characteristics:

– Employee information
– Performance standards
– Rating scale
– Signature
– Recommendations for employee performance development
– Staff comments
– Employee self-assessment

Why Performance Appraisal? This offers not only employees, but also managers the opportunity to improve future performance. Performance appraisals allow managers to gather information from employees that will help them make their employees’ jobs more productive.

5. Development Planning

This phase of the performance management process involves creating a plan to improve employee performance and development goals. It promotes the overall goals of the company while improving the quality of work of employees through:

– Encourage constant learning and professional growth.
– Help employees maintain a level of performance that meets (and exceeds) expectations.
– Improving professional or career-related skills and experience.

In conclusion, performance management is a process that, when implemented fairly and effectively, can improve the quality of an organization’s workforce, raise standards, increase job satisfaction, and develop professionalism and skills that benefit not just the employees but the organization as a whole. .